Chapter 3 – On the Way Home

Emma was quietly waiting at a table in The Leaky Cauldron looking over the letter and train ticket she had been given by Professor McGonagall. When she had arrived in the pub, the barman asked if she had wanted anything to eat or drink, but she respectfully declined. She still didn't feel up to it just yet, even after a long, busy afternoon shopping.

She had been waiting for nearly fifteen minutes from the moment she had sat down, and had been watching customers enter through the muggle door, and leave through Diagon Alley, or vice versa. She found the differences in appearance of some of the people walking through quite dramatic. There were some very proud faces, some respectful, others kindly, and some, downright sinister. Nearly everyone wore robes, but the styles and colours were as varied as the people who wore them. Emma enjoyed people watching; picking out particularly interesting characteristics in certain people, and this magical world certainly had a lot to offer.

The most shocking of these arrivals was a very large man, almost giant-like. His face was covered in a large mane of hair and a tangled beard. He looked wild and unkempt. He walked in through the door to the muggle street and had to stoop under the frame to get inside and made his way to the bar.

'The usual, Hagrid?' asked the barman.

'No thanks, Tom, I'll jus' have a cuppa tea.' said Hagrid.

He looked around the room for a place to sit and spotted Emma and walked over to her. The ground shook slightly as he drew nearer. 'You must be Emma then. McGonagall said you'd be 'ere.' he said, taking a seat opposite Emma. 'I'll be takin' yer back home, but hope you don't mind if we stay a bit longer. Bin a long trip gettin' 'ere see, and I'd like to have a cuppa before we set off.'

Emma looked up at him, completely overwhelmed and could only muster, 'Okay.'

'Should introduce meself, my name's Rubeus Hagrid, Keeper of Keys and Grounds at Hogwarts.'

'Nice to meet you, sir.' stammered Emma

'Call me Hagrid, everyone does.'

Emma nodded. This whole moment felt utterly surreal. This man was nearly twice the size of most adults.

'So, got all yeh books and things? I know they don't give yeh much money from the fund.'

'Yes, I have everything, thank you.' said Emma. Then she opened the trunk so that Hagrid could see. 'I even have some money left over.'

'Ah, good, good.' said Hagrid, picking out Emma's wand box. 'Yeh don't mind do yeh?'

Emma shrugged as Hagrid opened the box to look at the wand. He didn't take it out, for which Emma was thankful, she was worried he might break it.

'Ollivander's.' praised Hagrid, moving the box this way and that to see it better in the light. 'Only place fer wands. An' this one is very nice indeed.'

Emma had a wide smile on her face as she took the box back from Hagrid and put it back into her trunk. She'd grown very attached to her wand already. When she sat up straight again, Hagrid was looking at her strangely, like he'd seen a ghost. She was about to ask when she was interrupted by the barman bringing Hagrid his tea.

'Sure you don't want anything, Miss?' asked the barman.

'I'm sure, thank you.'

Hagrid finished his tea and sat back with a satisfied sigh. 'Are yeh ready to go then?' he asked.

'Yes, I think so.' said Emma starting to get up.

'Not just yet. Wait 'ere fer just a moment, I'll be right back.' said Hagrid smiling. He left through the archway into Diagon Alley and was gone for only a few minutes.

'Here yeh are.' he said when he got back, handing over a small box of basic potion ingredients that Emma had seen earlier but didn't buy as it wasn't on the list. 'Seen as you been given money from the school, yer allowed to use the schools supplies of potion ingredients. Professor Snape's an ass though and won't let yer use much. So, put this with your other things. Oh, and please don' mention what I said about Professor Snape.'

'Of course not. Thank you, Hagrid.' said Emma beaming.

'Don' mention it,' said Hagrid happily.

Emma put the ingredients box in the trunk and they set off. Hagrid insisted on pulling the trunk himself. 'Can't be havin' you trailing this around.' he said. 'Yeh'll do yerself a mischief.'

Emma was happy with this as it was certainly heavier than she was.

Hagrid spoke a lot on the way back to the orphanage and Emma found it very easy to speak to him. He asked her what she knew about Hogwarts and told her about his job there looking after the grounds. He asked her whether she had ever done any magic before she received the letter and was surprised when she had said no. He had also asked her what happened when she had been given her wand and laughed when she explained how she made the wall disappear.

Unhappily for both of them however, they had arrived near the orphanage all too soon. Hagrid stopped short of the orphanage, not wanting to give anyone a fright.

'Got everything? Yer letters and ticket?'

'I think so.' said Emma, pulling the letter out of her pocket to make sure. 'Yes, it's all here.'

'Right. Professor McGonagall told you about the train an' everythin'?'

'Yeah.'

'Good. No later than eleven, remember.' he said waving his finger at her.

Emma nodded. She thought he was fussing too much but it was comforting to know that he was checking.

'Well then, goodbye Emma. Visit me when you get to Hogwarts.'

'I will, Hagrid, bye.'

Hagrid put the trunk down at Emma's feet. If it wasn't on wheels it would be impossible for her to move it. She looked down to grab the handle and looked up again to see Hagrid was nowhere to be seen. 'Magic.' she said to herself and giggled. She was pulling the trunk along slowly as she entered the orphanage as Mrs Cole was walking by.

'What have you got there, Emma?' she asked, startled.

'School stuff, miss.' huffed Emma, clearly having difficulty.

'Here, let me take that for you. Do you want it in your room?'

'Yes please, miss. Thank you.'

Mrs Cole took the trunk into Emma's room and placed it awkwardly beside the wardrobe. Now there really was no floor space left, and Mrs Cole could only just close the door.

'You should come to dinner now, Emma.'

'No thank you, miss. Professor McGonagall got me dinner while we were out.' lied Emma, still not wanting to eat yet.

'Okay then. And on the subject of school. When is it you start again?'

'The first of September, miss. I'll need to catch a train from King's Cross Station.'

'We'll see about getting you a taxi then. You're not walking there on your own, especially not dragging that thing around.' she said gruffly, gesturing at the trunk.

'Thank you, miss.'

Mrs Cole nodded and left then to go back to the dining room, leaving Emma alone.

Emma had the rest of July and August to wait before she could leave for Hogwarts. She was trying to be patient, but she was so excited and spent as much time as she could in her room reading the books she had bought. She barely understood most of it but found it all very interesting. She was tempted on more than one occasion to try casting a spell from the books but remembered what Professor McGonagall had said about no magic at home with some disappointment.

The days went by very slowly for Emma, especially considering her insomnia was getting worse. A week after she had said goodbye to Hagrid her sleep had all but gone completely. The strange thing was that she was no longer tired all the time. Maybe it was all the excitement and trepidation, or that her body was getting used to being awake all the time, but whatever it was, the dark rings under her eyes had faded slightly. They were still there of course, but much less obvious. Emma was still eating less too. She had made a real effort to eat something at dinner times to keep Mrs Cole and the other staff off her back, but it always came straight back up again shortly after. The Bertie Bott's Every-Flavour Beans were helping a little. She could eat one or two every so often but she was still losing weight slowly. She also found some of the the beans flavours very funny. Most didn't taste very nice, but on a number of occasions she had gotten ones that tasted truly vile, such as mud, cat food, and even soap. She knew they weren't made out of what they tasted like, or at least, she hoped they weren't, so she ate them anyway.

It was on the day before her trip to Hogwarts would commence that she picked a dark red bean out of the box and it tasted incredibly nice. This gave Emma a bit of a shock as nothing had tasted nice for months, so she tried to decide what it tasted like. At first she thought it had a coppery or metallic taste, which was unusual. It reminded her a little of water from the tap. It was sort of salty as well. It took her a few more moments and it finally hit her. The shock of it tasting so nice was nothing to the shock of realising what it was. Blood! It tasted like blood and she liked it! She spat out the bean impulsively and soon regretted it. Now she wanted the taste back, much to her own horror.

'I'm a vampire.' Emma said quietly to herself in disgust.

Emma tried to remember when she had ever tasted blood before, and remembered the few times she had cut herself, or bitten her lip too hard and remembered that she liked the taste. But this didn't necessarily mean she was a vampire.

'Lots of people like the taste of blood.' she thought defensively. 'But they don't have trouble sleeping and eating.' her mind retorted. 'Hagrid knew! I knew I should have asked him!' she thought.

'No!' she told herself in anger. 'Stop being silly.'

After having a little argument with herself, Emma decided that she would speak to Hagrid about it as soon as she could after arriving at Hogwarts. There was no sense in worrying about it now, instead she decided to be worried about whether or not she would miss the train, or whether she would be any good at magic.

Emma had checked the contents of her trunk so many times that night that she had lost count, but she was certain, more or less, that she had everything. By six o'clock in the morning, her excitement had been boiling inside her and was ready to burst at any moment. She wanted to set off the moment Mrs Cole woke up which wouldn't be until about seven o'clock. She spent the last hour getting ready. She wore a plain black short-sleeved dress that fell to her knees, and some simple black shoes. It all matched her hair and she thought it looked quite smart. The dress was the only item of clothing she owned that didn't show they were orphanage uniform so obviously. It was meant to be worn when they went on outings or holidays. She packed the rest of her clothes, which wasn't much, into the trunk. She thought, sadly, that the only things of hers that weren't packed was her bed and her wardrobe. The entirety of her life packed away in a small trunk.